Week 41: Newest (Genealogy leads to New Friends)

It is October 13th, 2020, and we are what?  seven months into this pandemic.  There are some signs of hope for treatment and vaccines, so I'm hoping by this time next year we will be able to return to life as normal, though I suspect we will all have been changed by this experience.  .It has been humbling to be confronted by an illness that spreads so quickly and works so mysteriously.  

This week's writing prompt is "Newest."  In contrast to last week's "Oldest" I'm going to go with my newest, most recent contact.  This is another Prewitt/Pruitt connection:  a fellow Gold Star mother whose name I'd seen commenting on various mutual acquaintances Facebook pages over the last few years.  The loss of a child in military service is overwhelming, and for all these years that I've wondered if we were related (I've been told that all of the American Prewitts however they spell their names are descended from Thomas Prewitt), I hesitated to ask because it seems kind of frivolous.  But, recently it began to seem like it would be OK, so I sent a friend request and a note.  

Oh my goodness.  The short answer is, I don't know how yet, but it really looks like we cross somewhere because my new Pruitt connection has a ton of genealogical information, including three typewritten pages of family tree with names and locations that I recognized.  I've been bracing myself to read carefully with a highlighter for those names and places.  A gold mine of information.

So, you'd rather not get to know people because what you have in common is the loss of a child, but I've been making my peace with that for the last sixteen years.  I'm glad I reached out and even more glad that my fellow Gold Star Mom reached back.   And now I have another date to remember, and a new friend to treasure because an interest in family history gave me the courage to ask. 

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